Venezuela or Europe: What kind of leftist is Chile's new president?

Chile's President-elect Gabriel Boric says he wants to create a welfare state "so that everyone has equal rights no matter how much money they have" (AFP/Javier TORRES)

Laurent Abadie and Alberto Pena
Mon, December 20, 2021,

Despite being branded a "communist" by his critics, Chile's left-wing president-elect Gabriel Boric has always pointed to Europe as the inspiration for the "social welfare" state he wants to create.

Chile is one of the world's most unequal countries, where the top one percent hold more than a quarter of the wealth, according to the ECLAC UN agency.

The incomes of the richest are 25 times those of the poorest, according to the OECD group of developed economies among which Chile is listed as the second-most unequal in terms of household disposable income.

The rich-poor gulf was one of the sparks for a violent uprising in 2019 that left dozens dead and rocked the economy and political establishment.

It is a situation Boric, who backed the protests, has vowed to correct.

He described his project as "something that in Europe would be quite obvious, which is to ensure a welfare state so that everyone has equal rights no matter how much money they have in their wallet."

Many Chileans, however -- among the richer classes but also in rural areas -- are distrustful of his Approve Dignity leftist alliance with the Communist Party.

Investors don't like his pledge to increase taxes.

And many Chileans have deep-seated fear of communist policies they blame for the demise of Venezuela, many of whose nationals it hosts as migrants.

- 'Chilezuela' -

"Boric is more left than the traditional parties" that have been in government, said Rodrigo Espinoza, a political scientist with the University Diego Portales.

But based on his policy agenda, Boric is more "related to European social democracy" than the left in Venezuela or Bolivia, he added.

Boric was the centrist option in the Approve Dignity's primary, beating out the Communist Party's Daniel Jadue.

Espinoza said Boric had been the victim of a fake news campaign portraying him as a kind of Hugo Chavez clamoring for a "Chilezuela," whereas there was nothing in his program about "breaking the free-market system."

His rival for the presidency, far-right, neoliberal lawyer Jose Antonio Kast, managed with some success to paint Boric as a "communist."

"The left only promotes poverty, the kind of poverty that has dragged down Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, where people flee from," Kast had said in his final campaign speech.

The message stuck with many.

Though nearly a million more people voted for Boric on Sunday in a convincing victory, Kast still managed to amass more than 3.6 million of the 8.3 million ballots cast.

"Communism... touches everything we have as middle-class people," Kast voter Ricardo Sepulveda, a 75-year-old retired construction worker in Santiago, told AFP about his choice.

Another, business owner Sergio Adauy, 52, said he expected Boric would "change the rules of the game" and "not respect the agreements by which people invested capital" in Chile.

The Communist Party had been a part of previous leftist governing coalitions, including that of socialist Michelle Bachelet.

But Boric is perceived as much more left-wing.

- 'Protecting our macro-economy' -

"Boric is not a communist," economist Francisco Castaneda of Chile's Universidad Mayor told AFP.

"His political grouping is learning to understand that fiscal responsibility is important, and that reforms to close social gaps must be gradual, long-term," he added.

Standing his ground, Boric told AFP before the election "it is not possible to do business, or for a country to grow, when a society is tremendously fractured, as it is in Chile."

He has vowed to reduce the work week from 45 to 40 hours, to advance "green development" and to create 500,000 jobs for women.

He also wants to change Chile's system of private pensions, which was one of the key gripes of the 2019 protesters.

On Sunday, after his victory, Boric vowed again to "expand social rights" but said he would do so with "fiscal responsibility."

"We will do it protecting our macro-economy," he said.

- Market rejection -

Investors were seemingly not convinced, and the Santiago stock exchange fell 6.8 percent on Monday, while the Chilean peso fell to a record low against the US dollar.

Some analysts had expected the reaction to be bigger, said Castaneda, "but moderation towards the center (in Boric's program) attenuated the decline."

Even if he wanted to bring about radical changes to Chile's neoliberal economic model, the youthful president would find it difficult to convince a Congress just about equally split between left- and right-wing parties.

University of Chile political scientist Maria Cristina Escudero also rejected any comparison to Venezuela-style socialism.

"He is trying to form a broad coalition beyond Approve Dignity given the reality that... he won't be able to advance his government program without agreement in Congress," she said.

Boric "needs each and every vote from the traditional center-left in addition to the votes from his own coalition," meaning he cannot alienate anyone, said Escudero.

bur-mlr/to

Human cost of China's green energy rush ahead of Winter Olympics




China has vowed the upcoming Winter Olympics 2022 will be the first Games to be run entirely on wind and solar energy, and have built scores of facilities to increase capacity -- but activists warn ordinary people are being exploited

 Some families have so little income following the loss of their land to renewables projects that they are burning corn husks to stay warm this winter

(AFP/GREG BAKER)

Poornima WEERASEKARA
Mon, December 20, 2021

Beaten, forced off their land, cheated out of money, and even falsely imprisoned -- farmers in China say they are paying a heavy price as authorities rush to deliver on ambitious pledges to ramp up national green energy output.

China has vowed the upcoming Winter Olympics 2022 will be the first Games to be run entirely on wind and solar energy, and have built scores of facilities to increase capacity -- but activists warn ordinary people are being exploited by "land grabs" in the process.

In a hamlet near Beijing, the Long family -- who say they've lost more than half their agricultural land to a sprawling solar farm next door -- now have so little income they are burning corn husks and plastic bags to stay warm in winter.

"We were promised just 1,000 yuan per mu of land each year when the power company leased the land for 25 years," farmer Long from Huangjiao village said, using a Chinese unit of land equal to approximately 667 square metres.

"We can make more than double the amount by growing corn in the same area. Now without land, I eke out a living as a day labourer."

China is the world's biggest producer of wind turbines and solar panels, and the Winter Olympics is seen as an opportunity to showcase the country's green technologies as they seek global markets.

To ensure an uninterrupted power supply for the Games -- and clear the winter smog choking the Chinese capital -- Hebei province neighbouring Beijing has built a giant plant that takes in power from renewable projects in the province.

That one plant creates 14 billion kilowatt hours of clean electricity every year, similar to the annual energy consumption of Slovenia.

But for farmers like Long and his neighbour Pi, the green energy boom has made their lives more dangerous and difficult.

Pi says villagers were forced to sign contracts -- seen by AFP -- leasing their land to the solar park built by State Power Investment Group (SPIC), one of the five biggest utility companies in the country.

Those who didn't agree were beaten by the police, he said, adding "some were hospitalised, some were detained."

Wind turbines in Desheng village in Zhangbei in Zhangjiakou, one of the host cities for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games (AFP/GREG BAKER)

- 'Suppressed and imprisoned' -

Pi was jailed for 40 days, while Long languished in prison for nine months for "illegally gathering and disturbing peace," after a public protest.

"The situation is similar to a mafia," Pi said. "If you complain, then you'll be suppressed, imprisoned and sentenced."

The average annual disposable rural income in Baoding is about 16,800 yuan ($2,600), a figure both Long and Pi said they can no longer make.

AFP could not confirm that electricity from the SPIC project near Huangjiao would be used to power the Olympic venues directly, because that information is not publicly available.

The company declined to confirm when asked by AFP.

But the Zhangjiakou government -- the city co-hosting the Games -- has said that since winning the Olympic bid in 2015, the area has "transformed itself from scratch (into) the largest non-hydro renewable energy base in China."

Government subsidies for wind and solar farms have also accelerated construction of such projects in other parts of Hebei, as China scrambles to cut air pollution before the Games.

In a statement, Amnesty International said "forced evictions, illegal land seizures, and loss of livelihoods related to the loss of land" were among the most frequent human rights concerns associated with the wind and solar energy sectors.

China wants 25 percent of its electricity to come from non-fossil fuels by 2030.

To achieve this, the country has to more than double its current wind and solar capacity -- but environmentalists warn land seizures will become more widespread as energy companies rush to produce renewables.

And although Beijing has set a series of ambitious targets around the Winter Olympics, green campaigners face heavy pressure in China if they challenge the official line.

Several told AFP they were not comfortable discussing Beijing's environmental targets for the Games for fear of reprisals.

China wants 25 percent of its electricity to come from non-fossil fuels by 2030 (AFP/GREG BAKER)

- 'We got nothing' -

In September, China announced strict rules for compensation when land is taken over for ecological projects, including the development of green energy.

"Our land zoning (rules) also clearly regulate what agricultural land can't be occupied, especially farmland," Li Dan, secretary general of the renewable energy professionals committee, which promotes green development.

"This is a red line."

If farmland is being used for renewable energy projects there should be a benefit sharing programme in place such as powering greenhouses, she said.

But several farmers AFP spoke to said companies were labelling agricultural fields as wasteland to skirt the rules.

Xu Wan, a farmer in Zhangjiakou, lost his land to a solar installation built during the run-up to the Games.

"The company told us this was non-usable land, but actually it's all very good agricultural land used by us farmers," Xu said.

"They said they would give us 3,000 yuan per mu of land. But in the end, we got nothing."

Zhangjiakou Yiyuan New Energy Development, which installed the solar project in Xu's village, did not respond to AFP's request for comment.

Jiang Yi, a Chinese Academy of Engineering researcher, told a state-run industry news site that in future China will need 30,000-40,000 square kilometres more land to meet the renewable energy needs.

"Where the land comes from has become the biggest issue restricting the development of the industry," he said.

- 'The corruption is intolerable' -

Renewable investments also made up over half the new projects under China's global infrastructure push -- the Belt and Road initiative -- last year.

Priyanka Mogul from The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, a UK-based non-profit that has studied the impact of Chinese renewable investments abroad, said some developers had also been accused of controversial practices when acquiring land overseas.

"The most prevalent issue was inadequate disclosure of environmental impact assessment (data)... followed by issues related to land rights and loss of livelihoods," she said.

To reduce conflicts when taking over village land, China has billed most solar farms as poverty alleviation projects, where villagers get free electricity from solar panels installed on their roofs.

According to 2014 state guidelines, utility companies should then buy back the extra electricity in a programme to lift two million families out of poverty by 2020.

The National Energy Administration said last year more than double that number benefited.

But in Huangjiao with over 300 households, only two roofs had solar panels, and villagers said there had been no programme to install solar panels.

"At a central level, the government has good policies for farmers," Pi from Huangjiao village said.

"But once it comes to the village level, things change. The corruption at the grassroots level is intolerable."

prw/rox/lto

European Parliament warns Serbia over violence against environmentalists

Photo: European Union 2021 - Source: EP / Philippe Stirnweiss


Published
December 16, 2021
Country
Serbia
Author
Igor Todorović


The European Parliament adopted a resolution with an overwhelming majority in which it highlighted “the violent behavior of hooligans towards peaceful demonstrators” in Serbia. Some lawmakers said Rio Tinto has a bad reputation and that its activities are devastating for the environment.

Members of the European Parliament condemned the “increasing violence by extremist and hooligan groups against peaceful environmental demonstrations” in Serbia. They expressed regret at the “amount of force used by the police” at the latest series of protests against lithium research and Rio Tinto’s mine and processing plant project.

The resolution was adopted by 586 votes in favor, 53 against and 44 abstentions.
Serbia reprimanded for corruption, lack of transparency in environmental protection

European lawmakers called on the Serbian authorities to publicly condemn the actions of the hooligans. Protesters have rallied to express opposition to “the rushed adoption” of two laws, where the Law on Expropriation was “seen as opening space for controversial foreign investment projects, such as the Rio Tinto mine, with a heavy impact on the environment,” according to the resolution.

“The police force allegedly overstepped its authority or failed to protect protesters from violence and protect their human right to peaceful assembly,” the document adds.

The members of the European Parliament pointed to “corruption and the rule of law in the environment area” and the lack of transparency over environmental and social impact assessments in infrastructure projects.

Within the resolution, the European Parliament also highlighted allegations about forced labor and human trafficking at Linglong’s controversial tire plant construction site in Zrenjanin.

No respect for labor, environmental rights

In the debate, some European lawmakers said Rio Tinto has a bad reputation and that its activities are devastating for the environment, N1 reported.

“It is nothing new that Serbia is a captured state with a very weak reform track record. The Serbian regime has widely opened its doors to Chinese investments that have no respect whatsoever for labor and environmental rights and human dignity above all,” Viola von Cramon-Taubadel from the European Green Party said before the vote. She added Rio Tinto and the Government of Serbia kept the details of their agreement secret.

The protests are not just about the environment or controversial laws but against “widespread corruption, the inaction of state institutions, lack of transparency and any progress on Serbia’s European path,” Von Cramon stated.

According to Klemen Grošelj from Slovenia, one of the authors of the resolution, it is not directed against Serbia or the people of Serbia, but a warning to the country’s authorities that the violation of fundamental rights like the ones at the Linglong plant construction site and during environmental protests are unacceptable. The Serbian government must secure the right to peaceful protest, he warned.

“During the peaceful protests, there was a series of incidents and provocations, sporadic violence, scuffles and fights caused by groups of provocateurs and government supporters, with a conspicuous absence of uniformed police,” Croatian MEP Tomislav Sokol said.

European periphery planned to be turned into landfill

Non-attached European lawmaker Ivan Vilibor Sinčić said there are plans for lithium mines at 20 locations. “The crucial place is the Jadar Valley, which has 18,000 inhabitants and distinguished agriculture, and it confirms the sad neocolonial reality of Europe and China. During Angela Merkel’s visit to her EPP [European People’s Party] colleague Vučić, he was a waiter and Serbia was a buffet,” he stated.

He was referring to the arrival of then-Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel in Belgrade in September, when she said her country is interested in lithium from Serbia.

“Why isn’t Europe interested in its own lithium, given that the biggest reserves are in Germany and Czechia? Why is the neoliberal concept being followed, where the gains and anything that’s worth goes to the center, and the pollution goes to the periphery? Imagine if lithium was found under the wine plantations around Bordeaux. Would the French be discussing the displacement of the people that live there? What if it was found in Tuscany? In the Rhine Valley? Of course they wouldn’t. It isn’t acceptable for peripheral countries, whether they are European members or not, to be a landfill so that someone could drive in electric cars,” Sinčić underscored.

On the same day, Rio Tinto called for dialogue and claimed it would continue with the implementation of its Jadar project in Serbia in line with the law. “We understand the interest of citizens in everything that happens in connection with the project, and we will continue to provide information on all aspects of the project for which we are responsible and in which we participate,” the company said.

Environmentalists protest against waste incinerator project in Sofia

Photo: Heat from waste is expensive and toxic (Za Zemiata)

Published
December 14, 2021
Country
Bulgaria
Author
Igor Todorović

Waste incineration results in emissions of mercury, dioxins and furans, environmentalist group Za Zemiata said as it protested against the project for such a facility in Sofia. The practice is incompatible with separate collection and recycling and Bulgaria will need to import waste for the plant to work at full capacity, activists claim.

Bulgarian environmentalist organization Za Zemiata projected slogans against waste incineration on the cooling towers of thermal power plant Sofia, within its campaign against the planned facility of the kind. The activists said it would exacerbate the issues in waste management and air quality with which Sofia is failing to cope, and demanded the introduction of a functional system for separate collection and recycling.

Bulgarian construction company Mix-Construction and its consortium partners Osal Energy and Dongfang Electric were selected in July to build a combined heat and power (CHP) plant that would use refuse-derived fuel or RDF. Za Zemiata noted that the Commission on Protection of Competition has annulled the decision in October over procedural mistakes.

The Bulgarian competition authority annulled the tender in which a consortium won the deal to build the CHP incinerator

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a EUR 67 million loan and the European Union earmarked funds from the Operational Program Environment 2014-2020. The capital city participates with EUR 10 million of its own funds in the EUR 179 million project.

However, Za Zemiata pointed to regular costs for staff and maintenance of EUR 91 million over the planned 26-year lifecycle of the plant, an estimated EUR 3.4 million per year in variable costs and planned incentives of EUR 59.5 million, all listed in the feasibility study.



Lack of information on health risks

“Health risks were greatly underestimated in the environmental assessment, and during the discussion, citizens disagreed with the proposal to take out a new loan. However, Sofia Municipality has moved forward with the implementation of the project. The decision was made in a very nontransparent way and despite the cases that were won, people still do not have access to full information about the pollution and financial performance of the proposed waste incineration plant,” says Desislava Stoyanova from Za Zemiata.

Za Zemiata: Incineration is incompatible with waste separation and recycling

The organization has been launching and supporting citizens’ lawsuits for years against the waste incineration plant and in other cases related to pollution.

Za Zemiata warned Sofia is in a valley with unfavorable air currents and that waste incineration results in emissions of mercury, dioxins and furans. The practice is incompatible with separate collection and recycling and Bulgaria will need to import waste for the plant to work at full capacity, activists claim.
Not enough RDF production capacity in Bulgaria

The organization said the incinerator in Sofia is expected to burn 180,000 tons of waste per year while that the country only produces one third of the volume of the RDF briquettes that are needed, implying waste would need to be imported. Plastics and paper are the most suitable for burning, and they are exactly the materials that should be recycled, activists point out.

A study conducted by the Sofia Municipality, also known as Stolichna Municipality, showed the incinerator would emits 20% more PM particles, 14% more sulfur dioxide and 10% more nitrogen oxides than the thermal power plant, the statement adds. Za Zemiata noted the European Commission didn’t include waste incineration on the list of technologies eligible for funding under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility.

The organization pointed to good examples of recycling systems in the towns of Gabrovo and Svilengrad.

Citizens protesting against waste incineration projects throughout Balkans

In neighboring Serbia, officials have recently hinted at the idea to install incinerators in the cities of Niš and Kragujevac. There are already numerous controversies about the ongoing CHP project in Belgrade, at the Vinča landfill. In Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, citizens and activists have been protesting against plans for incinerators of medical and municipal waste.

A plasma waste incineration project won a strategic investment status in North Macedonia.

University of Texas to license carbon capture technology to Honeywell

By

 Kevin Clark -

12.16.2021

The University of Texas at Austin will sell its carbon capture technology to Honeywell.

School researchers say the technology could significantly reduce CO2 emissions from combustion flue gases at power plants.

Through the process, carbon dioxide is absorbed and then sent to a stripper, where the CO2 is separated from the solvent. It is then compressed for geological sequestration or used for other purposes. UT researchers say the technology can be retrofitted within existing plants or included as part of new installation.

The school says for a single power plant, applying the carbon capture technology would enable the capture of about 3.4 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to removing nearly 735,000 cars from the road each year.

Honeywell said it believes the technology will lower the cost of capturing carbon emissions. The company plans to commercialize the carbon capture technology created by the UT researchers, eventually scaling it for use around the world.

“As the world proactively seeks technology solutions that limit greenhouse gas emissions, we recognize that carbon capture technology is an important lever available today to reduce emissions in carbon-intensive industries that have few alternative options, such as steel plants and fossil fuel power plants,” said Ben Owens, Vice-President of Honeywell Sustainable Technology Solutions.

Honeywell aims to become carbon-neutral by 2035. The company says it already captures and uses 15 million tons of CO2 per year.

More on the Texas Carbon Management Program here.

World’s first giga-scale green hydrogen electrolyser set for Saudi mega-city after Thyssenkrpp deal

German industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp wins contract from Air Products for 2GW electrolysis plant at $500bn Neom future city showcase


A rendering of Neom.Photo: Recharge

Thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers has won a deal to supply and install a 2GW-plus electrolysis plant for one of the world’s largest green hydrogen projects at Saudi Arabia’s future city Neom.

The contract with industrial gases firm Air Products is believed to be the world's first firm sale for electrolysers for a gigawatt-scale green hydrogen project.

While there are more than 250GW of renewable H2 projects in the global pipeline, none of their developers have publicly taken final investment decisions because they have not yet been able to guarantee that their hydrogen would find buyers.

Green H2 is generally more expensive than the highly polluting grey hydrogen that makes up 95-99% of the global supply, and there is a lack of government support to close the price gap, as well as few off-takers willing to pay a premium.

The unit of German industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp — which plans to expand its electrolyser factory to a world-beating 5GW annual production capacity — will engineer, procure and fabricate the Neom plant based on its 20MW alkaline water electrolysis module, with commissioning expected in 2026.

“As a world market leader in electrolysis we bring in two decisive factors to realise such gigawatt projects: With our large-scale standard module size and gigawatt cell manufacturing capacity per year together with our joint venture partner De Nora we are able to deliver large capacity projects today,” said Denis Krude, chief executive of Thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers.

German steelmaker gets government backing for green hydrogen pilot in Saudi Arabia future city

“With this gigawatt project, we are committed to invest into ramping up our manufacturing capacities further.”

Germany’s government as one of the first projects to receive support under its national hydrogen strategy late last year had handed over a grant to Thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers for the development of a prototype of a 20MW alkaline electrolyser for the production of green hydrogen and ammonia in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is planning to build a $500bn city called Neom by the Red Sea that will be powered by up to 40GW of renewable energy.

The H2 project partners Neom, developer ACWA Power and Air Products (as Neom Green Hydrogen Company) will operate the 2GW facility upon commissioning. Air Products is slated to convert the H2 into carbon-free ammonia for export to global markets.

The $5bn plant will be powered by 4GW of wind, solar and storage, the consortium said last year.


Thysenkrupp kick-starts decarbonisation at world's largest ammonia plant

“This project milestone with ThyssenKrupp furthers our strong progress at Neom to deliver carbon-free hydrogen on a massive scale in the Kingdom and for the world,” said Air Products chief operating officer Samir Serhan.

“The development and execution of this innovative megaproject is one of many required to drive a successful energy transition, and we look forward to continuing to develop, build, own and operate facilities that help address the world’s significant energy and environmental challenges.

“This project is the kick-off to become a frontrunner in the green hydrogen economy.”

Air Products, ACWA and Neom in July 2020 had selected Thyssenkrupp as strategic partner for its plan for massive hydrogen-based ammonia production at the mega-city.

Read more: 'Like building the pyramids': the epic green energy plans for Saudi Arabia's $500bn Neom mega-city

AIRCRAFT
How Green Is Hydrogen Fuel?
The aviation industry is strongly considering the zero-emission alternative—but does it really help the environment?
By Thom Patterson

December 15, 2021


In 2020, Airbus unveiled three ZEROe concept airliner designs: a turbofan, a turboprop and a blended-wing body. Credit: Airbus

At least two major aircraft manufacturers are considering new concept designs for transport category airplanes powered by hydrogen, but as aviation tries to shift to sustainable, zero-emission fuels, skeptics have a few questions.

First, how likely are hydrogen-powered airliners in the near future?

Leaders at Boeing have said they’re not interested, for now. They say developing hydrogen-fueled transport aircraft won’t be feasible until at least 2050. However, both Embraer and Airbus are planning to develop hydrogen fuel demonstrator aircraft. Airbus is going further, already collaborating with hydrogen producers and expressing confidence about the fuel’s viability.

“2035 is our targeted entry into service date,” said Glenn Llewellyn, Airbus vice president of zero emission aircraft, during October’s Hydrogen Aviation Summit hosted by ZeroAvia. “Working backwards, it means we’re going to be flight testing propulsion systems around the 2025 timeframe.”

Llewellyn acknowledged that flight testing a hydrogen propulsion system within four years will be a huge challenge.

“We have a lot of work to converge on the aircraft configurations, which will be done in parallel to technology maturation and the flight demonstration, and also the ecosystem establishment.”

Testing plans at Airbus may already be under way. The OEM didn’t deny reports that it’s planning to test fly an existing CFM International engine converted for hydrogen propulsion.

“Airbus is in constant talks with all engine manufacturers in order to assess and identify the propulsion technologies that would support its decarbonisation roadmap and enable the company to be ready to launch its first zero-emission airliner in 2025,” an Airbus spokesperson told FLYING. “These talks we keep confidential.”

Although civil aviation only contributes about 2 percent of all worldwide carbon emissions, the industry is increasingly pushing toward reaching net-zero. Many of the world’s largest carriers have already committed to net-zero emissions by 2050, if not sooner, including Air France, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Lufthansa, Southwest, and others.

In fact, United Airlines and Alaska Air Group have already invested significantly toward research and development of hydrogen-powered aircraft.

Developing the ecosystem and surrounding infrastructure to support wide-scale use of liquid hydrogen as an aviation fuel is a gigantic hurdle that experts point to as key to success. Production, storage, and delivery would all have to be scaled up. To transform the entire hydrogen fuel ecosystem to fully “green” would make this goal even more challenging.

‘Disruptively Different Propulsion’

In 2020, Airbus unveiled three ZEROe concept airliner designs: a turbofan, a turboprop, and a blended-wing body.

“It’s much more likely that we would have a turbofan or turboprop—a more classical tube and weight configuration in terms of aircraft concept—nonetheless with a disruptively different propulsion system,” Llewellyn said. “That propulsion system will be running on liquid hydrogen stored on board.”

Engineers are looking at multiple ways to use hydrogen fuel, including gas turbines that burn hydrogen, hydrogen fuel cells, and various hybrid combinations, Llewellyn said.

The Airbus concept aircraft would be designed to carry less than 200 passengers. Credit: Airbus


Hydrogen fuel cells produce electricity without combustion or emissions, similar to conventional batteries. However, unlike car batteries, they don’t run down or need to be recharged as long as they’re fed hydrogen and oxygen.

On a hydrogen-fuel-cell aircraft, electricity created by fuel cells drives thrust-producing engines. Compare that to hydrogen gas turbines, which power engines with internal combustion, similar to traditional combustion engines that burn jet-A. Unlike traditional combustion engines, hydrogen burns clean.

Both types of systems would require huge fuel tanks to carry the amount of liquid hydrogen needed for standard short- and medium-haul routes.

The reason is rooted in the nature of hydrogen itself. It packs more energy by weight than jet fuel, but it has lower energy by density. That’s because at room temperature hydrogen is a gas, making it difficult to store in large quantities unless it’s compressed by turning it into a liquid. To do that, you have to cool hydrogen to extremely low temperatures.

That means aircraft hydrogen fuel tanks are going to be more complex and heavier than comparable jet-A tanks—and more weight on an aircraft is a disadvantage.

However, the industry has tried creating a hydrogen-fueled airliner before. In the late 1980s, Soviet engineers developed the experimental Tupolev Tu-155, which completed about 100 test flights before the program was canceled during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Making Hydrogen ‘Green’

Transporting hydrogen fuel from production facilities to airports would be critical to widespread adoption.

“If we don’t have hydrogen at the aircraft, then there’s no point in providing a hydrogen aircraft,” Llewellyn said. “We believe that hydrogen can be used at airports already in the 2020s to start decarbonizing ground based activities.”

Airbus has already launched significant collaborations with Air Liquide, Vinci Airports, Groupe ADP, and Plug Power in the U.S.

This is when green hydrogen comes in. The fuel industry has created a color-coded system for hydrogen based on how environmentally friendly it is. Green hydrogen is the cleanest.

Remember, the goal of moving to hydrogen as an aviation fuel is to reduce carbon emissions. But currently, most hydrogen is manufactured by a process called steam-methane reforming. Basically hot steam is mixed with a methane source, like natural gas, which is a fossil fuel. The process releases carbon dioxide (CO2), which is why hydrogen from steam-methane reforming is not considered green. (In fact, the industry has designated hydrogen made this way as “blue” hydrogen.)

But, there is a way to make hydrogen from renewable sources without producing CO2: It’s a process called electrolysis.

As you may have learned in chemistry class, electrolysis uses massive amounts of electricity to separate water into its chemical elements, ripping the H (hydrogen) from H2O (water).

Hydrogen produced by electrolysis can only be designated “green” if the electricity used in the process comes from a zero-emission source, like wind turbines or solar energy farms or hydro-electric power plants. Currently, only about one percent of the world’s hydrogen is produced this way. But that number likely will increase as several companies are already working to build this production infrastructure.

For example, Plug Power is on track to produce green hydrogen in New York, Tennessee, Georgia, and California, where the company says it plans to build the “largest green hydrogen production facility on the U.S. West Coast.”

Near Cologne, Germany, the largest electrolysis plant of its kind in Europe began producing green hydrogen earlier this year, thanks to funding from the European Union. This Shell facility is on track to pump out 1,300 tons of green hydrogen per year.

Plug Power plans to build the “largest green hydrogen production facility on the U.S. West Coast.” Credit: Plug Power

How Much Do We Need?

According to a 2020 European Union study, producing enough liquid hydrogen to fuel the entire aviation industry worldwide could require between 500 and 1,500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, depending on the scenario. That works out to between 20 and 60 percent of total renewable energy capacity available today.

Currently, the world produces nearly 90 million metric tons of hydrogen per year. That number is expected to more than double to 200 million metric tons in 2030. According to the International Energy Agency, by 2050, global hydrogen production could reach 528 million metric tons per year—more than three-quarters of it green.

The global aviation demand for liquid hydrogen could total more than 9 million metric tons per year by 2040, which would be just 5 percent of total demand, according to the EU study.

If larger hub airports decided to switch just 5 percent of their fuel infrastructure to hydrogen, the EU study estimated it would require about 40,000 tons of liquid hydrogen per year, or about 100 tons per day.

Regional airports wishing to convert 10 percent of their fuel infrastructure would need about 5,000 tons of liquid hydrogen per year, equal to around 10 tons each day.

The study suggests that hydrogen production facilities—including solar or wind power plants—could be built near airports. For delivering fuel the final mile to airport ramps, hydrogen could be pumped to nearby airports via pipelines. Existing natural gas pipelines could be utilized for this purpose, experts say.
Paying for It

Producing liquid hydrogen is one thing. Paying for it is another. Skeptics have expressed concern that the cost of producing clean, renewable electricity for green hydrogen will force hydrogen prices to skyrocket.

Currently, green hydrogen costs about $5 per kilogram, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Keeping in mind that hydrogen contains three times more energy than jet-A—green hydrogen now costs more than twice as much as jet fuel.

But hydrogen companies say their fuel will be at cost parity with jet-A starting in 2025, with costs decreasing exponentially. That idea is getting support from the U.S. government. In June, the Department of Energy launched an initiative aimed at slashing green hydrogen prices by 80 percent to $1 per kilogram in the next decade.

Airbus said it was less likely that its ZEROe blended wing design concept would come to fruition. Credit: Airbus

Helping Airports and Airlines Shift to Hydrogen

Airbus has launched a program to help airports transition to hydrogen. It’s promoting the idea of creating hydrogen fuel hubs: turning airports into hydrogen distribution centers not only for aircraft, but for hydrogen powered ground vehicles and other uses.

The company has also partnered with carriers such as SAS Airlines and easyJet to assess what kind of infrastructure would be necessary to fuel hydrogen and hydrogen-hybrid aircraft.

“For hydrogen to meet its full potential, the entire airport ecosystem—airport authorities, energy suppliers, regulatory authorities—needs to come together to collaborate,” Airbus said in a statement.

Airbus has suggested turning airports into hydrogen distribution hubs. 

Credit: Airbus
Can It Work?

Experts say all the pieces to make the transition are there, but the challenge is in how to encourage effective and efficient collaboration among industry players.

The biggest hurdles will include creating affordable large-scale production of green hydrogen and adopting new technology for aviation, specifically along the development and certification tracks, says David Maniaci, an aerospace engineer at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Currently focusing on wind energy aerodynamics, Maniaci conducted his master’s research at Pennsylvania State University on the feasibility and performance of hydrogen-fueled commercial aircraft.

“I think technically it’s very feasible,” Maniaci said. “It’s a question of anything we put our focus on and come together on is possible. But there are a lot of changes and investments that would be needed.”

Historically, military and government investments have driven many of aviation’s big technological leaps forward, Maniaci said, paving the way for private industry to follow. “There’s probably something similar needed to really get things going in a large way.”
What’s Happening Now

Much of the real-world hydrogen development going on now in aviation surrounds the retrofitting of existing platforms.

ZeroAvia, based in the U.S. and U.K., has teamed up with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Regional Jet Aviation to develop and retrofit regional jets for hydrogen-electric propulsion. Currently they’re working to convert a 19-seat Dornier 220 turboprop. The plan is to certify the conversion and enter service by 2024.

Alaska Air Group is also working with ZeroAvia to convert a 76-seat de Havilland Canada Dash-8 to hydrogen-electric, aiming for a range of 500 nm.

And just this week, United Airlines announced a significant investment in ZeroAvia, including an agreement to purchase as many as 100 hydrogen-powered engines that could be retrofitted on existing United Express regional jets as soon as 2028. United singled out Mitsubishi’s 50-seat CRJ-550 as a potential platform for ZeroAvia’s hydrogen engines. The deal makes United the “largest airline to commit to hydrogen-electric aviation,” the carrier said.

Alaska Air Group is working with ZeroAvia to convert a 76-seat De Havilland Canada Dash-8 to hydrogen-electric – aiming for a range of 500 nm (575 miles). 

Credit: Alaska Air Group

California-based Universal Hydrogen wants to build a green hydrogen supply business for the aviation industry. Universal has developed kits to convert existing Dash-8s and ATR 72s for powertrains driven by hydrogen fuel cells. The kits are expected to be certified and enter service by 2025. The company also has developed a refueling system based on a proprietary, modular, hydrogen fuel capsule designed to easily be loaded onto aircraft.

What about the emerging electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) industry? As this sector begins to take shape, most prototypes are powered by lithium-ion batteries. However, California-based HyPoint has developed a hydrogen fuel cell targeting the eVTOL market. It has announced deals with eVTOL developers Urban Aeronautics and Piasecki Aircraft Corporation.
Big Leaps

A truly green ecosystem supporting hydrogen aviation fuel would likely be expensive and logistically challenging. Making it work would require successful collaboration between airports, airlines, and manufacturers in the coming decades.

“If hydrogen-powered aircraft are deployed in segments where they are the most cost-efficient means of decarbonization, they could account for 40 percent of all aircraft by 2050,” the EU study said.

As an expert watching it all from the sidelines, Maniaci is optimistic that the shift can happen, albeit slowly.

“It’ll be incremental but there will probably be some big leaps,” he says. “Some of those leaps will be through technology and some will be through groups making big investments and pushing technology forward.”

Thom Patterson
Thom is a staff reporter for FLYING and Modern FLYING. Previously, his freelance reporting appeared in aviation industry magazines. Thom also spent three decades as a TV and digital journalist at CNN’s bureaus in Washington and Atlanta, eventually specializing in aviation. He has reported from air shows in Oshkosh, Farnborough and Paris.

   

 

Advanced New Catalysts for More Efficient Clean Hydrogen Production

By OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY DECEMBER 17, 2021

Oregon State University research into the design of catalysts has shown that hydrogen can be cleanly produced with much greater efficiency and at a lower cost than is possible with current commercially available catalysts.

A catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change.

The findings are significant because the production of hydrogen is important for “many aspects of our life, such as fuel cells for cars and the manufacture of many useful chemicals such as ammonia,” said the OSU College of Engineering’s Zhenxing Feng, a chemical engineering professor who led the research. “It’s also used in the refining of metals, for producing man-made materials such as plastics and for a range of other purposes.”

Producing hydrogen by splitting water via an electrochemical catalytic process is cleaner and more sustainable than the conventional method of deriving hydrogen from natural gas via a carbon-dioxide-producing process known as methane-steam reforming, Feng said. But the cost of the greener technique has been a barrier in the marketplace.

The new findings, which describe ways to design catalysts that can greatly improve the efficiency of the clean hydrogen production process, were published in Science Advances and JACS Au.

Zhenxing Feng, OSU. Credit: OSU

In facilitating reaction processes, catalysts often experience structural changes, Feng said. Sometimes the changes are reversible, other times irreversible, and irreversible restructuring is believed to degrade a catalyst’s stability, leading to a loss of catalytic activity that lowers reaction efficiency.

Feng, OSU Ph.D. student Maoyu Wang and collaborators studied the restructuring of catalysts in reaction and then manipulated their surface structure and composition at the atomic scale to achieve a highly efficient catalytic process for producing hydrogen.

An active phase of a catalyst based on amorphous iridium hydroxide exhibited efficiency 150 times that of its original perovskite structure and close to three orders of magnitude better than the common commercial catalyst, iridium oxide. 

“We found at least two groups of materials that undergo irreversible changes that turned out to be significantly better catalysts for hydrogen production,” Feng said. “This can help us produce hydrogen at $2 per kilogram and eventually $1 per kilogram. That’s less expensive than the polluting process in current industries and will help achieve the United States’ goal of zero emissions by 2030.”

Feng notes that the U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office has established benchmarks of technologies that can produce clean hydrogen at $2 per kilogram by 2025 and $1 per kilogram by 2030 as part of the Hydrogen Energy Earthshot target of cutting the cost of clean hydrogen by 80%, from $5 to $1 per kilogram, in one decade.

The water electrolysis technology for clean hydrogen production that Feng’s group is focused on uses electricity from renewable sources to split water to make clean hydrogen. However, the efficiency of water splitting is low, he said, mainly due to the high overpotential – the difference between the actual potential and the theoretical potential of an electrochemical reaction – of one key half-reaction in the process, the oxygen evolution reaction or OER.

“Catalysts are critical to promoting the water-splitting reaction by lowering the overpotential, and thus lowering the total cost for hydrogen production,” Feng said. “Our first study in JACS Au laid the foundation for us, and as demonstrated in our Science Advances article we now can better manipulate atoms on surface to design catalysts with the desired structure and composition.”

References:

“Lattice site–dependent metal leaching in perovskites toward a honeycomb-like water oxidation catalyst” by Yubo Chen, Yuanmiao Sun, Maoyu Wang, Jingxian Wang, Haiyan Li, Shibo Xi, Chao Wei, Pinxian Xi, George E. Sterbinsky, John W. Freeland, Adrian C. Fisher, Joel W. Ager, Zhenxing Feng and Zhichuan J. Xu, 10 December 2021, Science Advances.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abk1788

“The Restructuring-Induced CoO_x Catalyst for Electrochemical Water Splitting” by Maoyu Wang, Qingbo Wa, Xiaowan Bai, Zuyun He, Widitha S. Samarakoon, Qing Ma, Yingge Du, Yan Chen, Hua Zhou, Yuanyue Liu, Xinwei Wang and Zhenxing Feng, 2 November 2021, JACS Au.
DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.1c00346

The National Science Foundation supported Feng’s research through the Northwest Nanotechnology Infrastructure site at OSU, and the Department of Energy provided funding as well.

Collaborating with Feng and Wang were researchers from Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Texas, Peking University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Northwestern University, South China University of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

Blue hydrogen driving Equinor’s renewed search for gas in Norwegian waters

Energy giant is redoubling its exploration efforts to boost its big plans


Explorer: Jez Averty, Equinor’s E&P chief in Norway wants to find more natural gas

Photo: Equinor

 16 December 2021 13:42 GMT
By Ole Ketil Helgesen
in Stavanger

Equinor plans to drill 25 exploration wells in Norway next year — up from 16 this year — in its drive to build a Norwegian energy hub, with hydrogen at its heart.

The energy giant’s hub concept is based on large-scale production and export of hydrogen, with plans to include both blue hydrogen, produced from natural gas, and also green hydrogen, produced with renewable energy. Investment plans include the use of carbon capture and storage technology to mitigate or eliminate emissions on gas production.


World's largest offshore wind farm 'unprofitable' for Equinor, say government-funded researchers

The energy transition has become core to Equinor’s business strategy, and this is reflected in an exploration strategy, both globally — promising a retreat from all but the very best plays in terms of profitability and opportunities for lower-carbon intensity — but also in Norway, where the state-controlled company forms part of a social and economic backdrop that demands a decarbonised future.

Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration and subsurface production in Norway, Jez Averty, gave Upstream an insight into the exploration plan that will be launched next year.

“We are planning to drill about 25 exploration wells off Norway in 2022. Two-thirds of the wells are Equinor-operated. In comparison, we drilled 16 wells in 2021,” Averty said, adding that some of the wells had yet to be approved by all partners.

According to the head of Norwegian exploration, most of the wells are located in the North Sea, a few in the Barents Sea and the rest in the Norwegian Sea.
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“In line with our strategy to prioritise value over volume, 80% of the wells are infrastructure-led exploration, which means that we aim to take advantage of infrastructure built over 40 years,” Averty said.

Resources that can be tied back to existing installations tend to allow for fast project execution, with lower capital expenditure and faster payback time, he noted.

Yet, Averty classified 20% of next year’s exploration wells as the “testing of new ideas” which means planning for higher-risk and higher-reward wells.

Most of these pure exploration wells are aimed at natural gas, as Equinor has high ambitions to produce and export blue hydrogen, made using natural gas and carbon capture and storage.

“When we are testing new ideas, our focus will mostly be to search for gas. We see that gas will have an important role in the energy transition. It is an enabler for blue hydrogen.”


Hydrogen success must overcome transportation challengesRead more

Averty did not provide additional detail about which parts of Norway's continental shelf will be targeted for wildcatting.

“I can’t reveal that at this time,” Averty said, added that over 50% of the company’s exploration programme is aiming for either natural gas or a combination of natural gas and oil.

Averty stressed that the 25-wells plan also forms part of the company’s strategy to maintain its production level of 1.5 million barrels per day in Norway to 2030, and beyond.

Equinor plans to build its future business around three pillars: developing oil and gas projects, increasing offshore wind production and creating new low-carbon businesses such as carbon capture and storage and hydrogen.

“These are interconnected. Oil and gas are of critical importance for society, which is evident in Europe where lack of gas has caused an energy crunch. In addition, the oil and gas industry will be a key driver for an energy transition based on knowledge, technology and, not least, investment,” Averty said.

Equinor plans to invest $23 billion in renewables until 2026. Continued production of oil and gas production will be a key enabler of the huge investments needed.

“The Norwegian shelf generates a significant cash flow, and we will use this to finance the transition. However, the cash flow depends on continued value creation, and exploration is the single most important measure to ensure continued value creation and cash flow,” he said.

A geologist by training, Averty believes the Norwegian continental shelf is highly competitive in an international perspective.

In 2021, Equinor discovered 119 million barrels of oil equivalent in Norwegian waters, with 16 exploration wells drilled.

Although the volumes are relatively small, in a regional and historical context Averty said Equinor’s exploration results between 2019 and 2021 are worth four times more than the investment in the exploration programme, with an average break-even oil price of $30 per barrel.

“We believe that having a significant but constant and predictable investment frame is an important part of ensuring the Norwegian continental shelf remains competitive. It avoids the peaks and troughs in activity that we often seen in the industry and provides a line of sight and predictability for our suppliers,” Averty said.

Internationally, Equinor plans to drill around 10 to 13 exploration wells next year, including in the US Gulf of Mexico, offshore Canada, Angola and Brazil, as well as in East Siberia, onshore Russia, a spokesperson for the company said.(Copyright)

INSIGHT-Too cold to handle? Race is on to pioneer shipping of hydrogen

Hydrogen is touted as an inevitable green fuel of the future. Tell that to the people who'll have to ship it across the globe at hyper-cold temperatures close to those in outer space.

CONTRIBUTOR
Jonathan Saul Reuters
PUBLISHED MAY 11, 2021

CREDIT: REUTERS/YUKA OBAYASHI

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - Hydrogen is touted as an inevitable green fuel of the future. Tell that to the people who'll have to ship it across the globe at hyper-cold temperatures close to those in outer space.

Yet that is exactly what designers are attempting to do.

In the biggest technological challenge for merchant shipping in decades, companies are beginning to develop a new generation of vessels that can deliver hydrogen to heavy industry, betting plants worldwide will convert to the fuel and propel the transition to a lower-carbon economy.

There are at least three projects developing pilot ships that will be ready to test transporting the fuel in Europe and Asia within the next three years, the companies involved told Reuters.

The major challenge is to keep the hydrogen chilled at minus 253 degrees Celsius - only 20 degrees above absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature - so it stays in liquid form, while avoiding the risk that parts of a vessel could crack.

That's almost 100 degrees Celsius colder than temperatures needed to transport liquefied natural gas (LNG), which required its own shipping revolution about 60 years ago.

Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries 7012.T has already built the world's first ship to transport hydrogen, Suiso Frontier. It told Reuters the prototype vessel was undergoing sea trials, with a demonstration maiden voyage of some 9,000 km from Australia to Japan expected in coming months.

"There is the next phase of the project already running to build a commercial-scale hydrogen carrier by the mid-2020s, with an aim to go commercial in 2030," said Motohiko Nishimura, Kawasaki's vice executive officer.

The 1,250 cubic-metre tank to hold the hydrogen is double-shelled and vacuum-insulated to help maintain the temperature.

Kawasaki's prototype, a relatively modest 116 metres long and 8,000 gross tonnes, will run on diesel on its maiden voyage but the company aims to use hydrogen to power future, larger commercial vessels, Nishimura said.

SUPER-STRENGTH STEEL

In South Korea, one of the world's major shipbuilding hubs, another project is in the works.

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering 009540.KS is the first company in the country working on building a commercial liquefied hydrogen carrier, a company spokesperson said.

To tackle the hyper-cold challenge, the company said it was working with a steelmaker to develop high-strength steel and new welding technology, along with enhanced insulation, to contain the hydrogen and mitigate the risks of pipes or tanks cracking.

On the other side of the world, in Norway, efforts are also underway to build a hydrogen supply chain on the west coast of the country, with one group looking to pilot a test ship that could transport hydrogen to planned filling stations, which would be able to service ships as well as trucks and buses.

Norwegian shipping company Wilhelmsen Group is working on the latter project with partners to build a "roll-on/roll-off" ship that will be able to transport liquid hydrogen by way of containers or trailers that are driven onboard, said Per Brinchmann, the company's vice president, special projects.

The ship is expected to be operational in the first half of 2024, he added.

"We believe once we have this demonstration vessel operational the intention will be to build up bunkering hubs on the west coast (of Norway)," Brinchmann said, referring to the filling stations.

Other companies are exploring a different route to avoid the cold conundrum and what may happen when hydrogen atoms interact with metal.

Canada's Ballard Power Systems and Australia's Global Energy Ventures, for example, are working together to develop a ship to transport compressed hydrogen in gas form.

"The earliest timeframe would be 2025/26," said Nicolas Pocard, vice president marketing and strategic partnerships with Ballard.

The advantage of this gas approach is that it does not require any extreme temperatures. But the downside is that less hydrogen can be transported in a cargo than liquid hydrogen, which is why some of the early movers are opting for the latter.

Wilhelmsen's Brinchmann said that a 40-foot container would carry about 800-1,000 kg of pressurized hydrogen gas, but up to 3,000 kg of liquid hydrogen.

COMPLEX AND COSTLY

Such endeavours are far from risk free.

They are expensive, for a start; none of the companies would comment on the cost of their vessels, though three industry specialists told Reuters that such ships would cost more than vessels carrying LNG, which can run to $50-$240 million each depending on size.

"The cost of a vessel transporting hydrogen will mainly be driven by the cost of the storage system. Storing liquid hydrogen could be very expensive because of its complexity," Carlo Raucci, marine decarbonisation consultant with ship certifier LR, added separately.

The pilot projects, which are still in experimental stages, must overcome these technical challenges, and also rely on hydrogen catching on as a widely used fuel in coming years.

None of this is certain, though the state support being thrown behind this cleaner-burning fuel suggests it does have a future in the global energy mix.

More than 30 countries, including several in Europe such as France and Germany as well the likes of South Korea and Australia, have released hydrogen rollout plans.

Total planned investments could reach over $300 billion through to 2030 if hundreds of projects using the fuel come to fruition, according to a recent report by the Hydrogen Council association and consultants McKinsey.

The role of shipping would be important to unlocking the potential to convert industries such as steel and cement to hydrogen.

Those two heavy-industry sectors alone are estimated to produce over 10% of global CO2 emissions, and overcoming their need for fossil fuels is one of the key challenges of the global transition to a lower-carbon economy.

FASTER THAN LNG?

Tiago Braz, VP energy with Norwegian marine technology developer Hoglund, said the company was working with steel specialists and tank designers on engineering a ship cargo system that can be used for transporting liquid hydrogen.

"We are at the early stages with hydrogen carriers. But unlike when LNG was first rolled out, the industry is more flexible to change," Braz said.

"It should be a faster transition," he added.

Specialists say the development of LNG took decades before it was fully rolled out, partly due to the infrastructure and ships required and the few companies willing to invest initially.

Companies active in wider shipping markets are also looking at the possibility of diversifying into transporting hydrogen in the future.

Paul Wogan, chief executive of GasLog Partners GLOP.N which is a major player in LNG shipping, said it was "open-minded" about moving into hydrogen, while oil tanker owner Euronav EUAV.BR said it was examining future energy transportation.

"If that energy is hydrogen tomorrow, we would certainly like to play a role in the emerging industry," Euronav's CEO Hugo De Stoop said.

Others such as leading ship-management company Maersk Tankers said they would be open to managing hydrogen shipping assets.

Johan Petter Tutturen, business director for gas carriers with ship certifier DNV Maritime, said his company was involved in concept studies for the transport of hydrogen in bulk at sea.

"It'll be some years before these projects come to fruition, but if hydrogen is to be a part of the future fuel mix then we have to begin exploring all possibilities now."

(Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo, Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee in Seoul; Editing by Veronica Brown and Pravin Char)

The lesser-known hydrogen roadblock: safety concerns

By Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | EURACTIV.com
Oct 13, 2021

“For the successful development of an EU hydrogen economy, high safety standards must be established,” says Angelika Niebler, a German lawmaker from the European People's Party (EPP). [Jackthumm / Shutterstock]

The high flammability of hydrogen – a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas – has prompted EU lawmakers to ensure that potential safety issues do not stymie the market uptake of this rather novel energy carrier.

The European Commission sees clean hydrogen as “a vital missing piece of the puzzle” to decarbonise heavy industries like steelmaking and help the EU meet its 2050 climate neutrality objective.

One key issue though is safety: the gas is highly flammable meaning transport and use must follow strict protocols.

“For the successful development of an EU hydrogen economy, high safety standards must be established,” says Angelika Niebler, a German lawmaker from the European People’s Party (EPP), the centre-right political group in the European Parliament.

Technologies must first be safe if they are to be trusted, she told EURACTIV.

Niebler is one of the lawmakers behind an EU parliament report on the European Commission’s proposed hydrogen strategy tabled in July last year.

The European Parliament is “strongly convinced that public acceptance is key to the successful creation of a hydrogen economy,” the report states, calling for measures to promote a strong safety culture in the hydrogen value chain.

Other EU lawmakers seem less worried. “The industry has produced and handled hydrogen for decades,” says Jens Geier, a German lawmaker from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) who was the lead author of the Parliament report.

“Hence, the expertise for security and safety standards with regard to hydrogen use already exists,” the German MEP told EURACTIV.

Hydrogen is not a new technology. But it has suffered from image problems due to its high flammability and its association with the hydrogen bomb and the Hindenburg airship disaster – the famous zeppelin that was caught on camera bursting into flames during a 1937 air show in Germany.

Given the importance of hydrogen in the decarbonisation of industry, policymakers have launched various initiatives to ensure hydrogen production, transport and use is kept as safe as possible.

Bringing safety to the industry

To tackle safety aspects, the European Commission tasked its public-private partnership, the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), with establishing an expert panel to ensure that “hydrogen safety is adequately addressed and managed.”

The European Hydrogen Safety Panel (EHSP), founded in 2017, has two main objectives: addressing hydrogen safety as well as disseminating knowledge and a safety culture in the hydrogen value chain.

While large companies usually have strong safety protocols, the FCH JU aims to develop safe handling protocols that will be freely available to anyone handling hydrogen – including small businesses.

The EHSP cooperates with the Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to better understand hydrogen safety. To that end, the two have established a database which records hydrogen related-incidents from even before 1990.

The European Hydrogen Incidents and Accidents Database (HIAD 2.0) had almost 600 events recorded as per its last report on 21 September.

The immense agglomeration of data and its subsequent analysis has provided valuable insights. One of the key takeaways is that better training and education could have prevented more than one quarter of hydrogen related accidents.

The cost question

Education and training is also seen as a cost-effective solution in the debate opposing safety and market viability.

“There is always a trade-off between safety and cost,” said Garcia Hombrados, who noted that those pushing for the strictest possible safety rules would make hydrogen too expensive to commercialise.

“This is a classic conflict for optimisation,” added Georg Mair, a member of the EHSP. Preventing accidents at all cost was not an economically viable solution, he said, calling for a more effective “safety-first” approach.

[Edited by Frédéric Simon]

Hydrogen in Buildings: The Poster Child of Tech-Crastination

September 07, 2021 Rachel Fakhry  Merrian Borgeson 

Tech-crastination refers to cases where the promise of a future technology diminishes interest in the deployment of existing, reliable, and cost-effective technologies. Tech-crastination is an appropriate characterization of the gas industry’s claims around the suitability of hydrogen as a solution to decarbonize buildings, even though heating homes with hydrogen is one of the least-efficient and most costly options available.

Credit: iStock/ audioundwerbung

Green hydrogen has emerged as the darling of the gas industry and those considering pathways to reach aggressive climate targets. It is a promising solution to clean up the most challenging sectors of the economy—aviation, maritime shipping, and steelmaking—where electrification faces technical hurdles. However, it is an inefficient and costly solution outside of those narrow applications where it’s uniquely suited for the task.

For example, green hydrogen is a woefully inefficient and risky solution to decarbonize buildings relative to proven and readily available high-efficiency electric heat pumps. Despite this reality, and to protect and perpetuate their business model, some in the gas industry are increasingly broadcasting the merits of hydrogen’s widespread use in buildings and setting up the foundations for its deployment. This could derail investments in building efficiency and electrification, undermine climate progress, and lock customers into expensive and illusive hydrogen-heavy pathways. Burning hydrogen in homes could also worsen indoor air pollution.

Policymakers should cut through the industry noise and decisively pursue widespread electrification as the lower-cost and lower-risk solution to decarbonize buildings.

Hydrogen use to heat buildings receives a meagre “F” grade on the now-famous Liebreich “hydrogen ladder.”

Source: Liebreich: ‘Oil sector is lobbying for inefficient hydrogen cars because it wants to delay electrification’, Recharge News, 2021

Hydrogen use in buildings creates harmful air pollution

Burning hydrogen generates harmful air pollutants, and the extent to which those could be mitigated remains uncertain. This reality is acknowledged by California gas utilities; they recognize that, due to hydrogen’s chemical characteristics, blends of hydrogen and methane may even yield higher emissions of health-damaging nitrogen oxides than methane alone. In contrast, heat pumps produce zero indoor air pollution by eliminating combustion, and provide a robust pathway towards zero-emission buildings as the electricity supply transitions away from fossil fuel generation.

An inefficient and risky solution relative to direct and efficient electrification

Hydrogen can hypothetically substitute for methane gas in heating buildings. However, a range of studies (here and here) estimate that heating a home with green hydrogen would require 5 to 6 times more renewable electricity than heating that same home with a highly efficient heat pump. More than 20 percent of the electricity is lost in producing the hydrogen and readily available high-efficiency heat pumps can be 4.5 times more efficient relative to the still pre-commercial hydrogen boilers (figure below). Opting for hydrogen instead of a high-efficiency heat pump is akin to choosing to take your car to work, spend 30 minutes in gridlock traffic and pay $35 for parking to boot, instead of biking 10 minutes from home.

Relative Efficiency of Heating Electricity in Heat Pumps vs. Electrolytic Hydrogen in Boilers from a study conducted by the U.K. Climate Change Committee

Source: Hydrogen in a Low-Carbon Economy, UK CCC, 2018

This wide efficiency differential has important implications on both the costs and risk profile of hydrogen-heavy pathways.  Achieving the U.S. climate goals will require a substantial increase in wind and solar deployment. An unnecessary fivefold multiplier on this renewable buildout would massively increase the difficulty of cleaning up our economy. It also raises potential hydrogen supply risks, which must be aptly considered in evaluating the suitability of an extensive hydrogen agenda. A diverse group of European stakeholders has urged their governments to steer clear of pursuing hydrogen as a widespread solution in buildings on account of those critical limitations. Policymakers across the globe should heed this recommendation.

The “no-disruption” slogan is a myth: hydrogen requires modified or entirely new pipelines and appliances

Some in the gas industry argue that using hydrogen to heat buildings is a “no-disruption” solution relative to electrification, owing to the potential to utilize the existing gas network to transport the hydrogen. But this claim ignores some critical challenges.

Hydrogen is a fundamentally different gas relative to methane gas:

• When blended at high shares with methane, its chemical properties cause embrittlement to steel gas pipelines and diminish their integrity;
• It’s a much smaller molecule than methane and is thereby more prone to leakage, with important implications on the required pipe materials.

Hydrogen could be blended with methane in low proportions with minimal investments into the existing gas system—perhaps up to 7 percent by energy, although this is subject to ongoing investigations. However, any quantity of hydrogen exceeding the 7 percent threshold is likely to require either major network repurposing measures or the buildout of an entirely new dedicated hydrogen pipeline network. 

Our appliances are also not made to run on a high mix of hydrogen;  gas boilers, furnaces and cookstoves would have to be replaced with hydrogen-compatible alternatives, which are not currently available to consumers.

The high costs and effort associated with a large-scale conversion to hydrogen therefore decidedly impugn the glossy “no disruption” marketing claim.

Risks of expensive energy system “supersizing”

Some claim that widespread hydrogen use in buildings would deliver huge savings on electric transmission and distribution infrastructure relative to the electrification of buildings. However, this premise is questionable as it selectively overlooks the broader picture. While it may deliver some savings on electricity distribution infrastructure, a hydrogen-heavy pathway would require large incremental infrastructure elsewhere on the system due to its much lower efficiency relative to direct electrification and the need for a hydrogen-compatible network.

A study by the European Climate Foundation found that the savings on electric network infrastructure in a high hydrogen case would be much smaller than the increased costs in renewable projects, electrolyzers, and storage facilities to produce and store green hydrogen, and in the upkeep and refurbishing of the gas network to transport the hydrogen. This energy infrastructure “supersizing” sharply increases energy system costs and household energy bills relative to high electrification cases.

Source: Towards Fossil-Free Energy in 2050, European Climate Foundation, 2019.

The high hydrogen case reflects more expanded hydrogen use and moderate electrification in both buildings and transportation. The study estimates a net 36% increase in infrastructure costs in the high hydrogen case. The 22% reduction in electricity network investments is largely outweighed by the 248% increase in expenses on electrolyzers, storage facilities, and refurbishing gas networks. The study also estimates a 16% increase in investments in renewable energy projects in the high hydrogen case.

Misleading claims are intended to delay electrification and could produce expensive lock-in effects

Marketing claims around the merits of the future, widespread hydrogen use in buildings could dull support for electrification among decision makers and reduce related investments. It seems likely that these dubious claims are often made with the intention of delaying crucial investments in the transition away from fossil infrastructure. This tech-crastination risks undermining climate progress, as numerous studies (here and here) have concluded that rapid building electrification and efficiency retrofits in this decade are critical to meeting both the new U.S. 2030 Paris target and the 2050 net-zero greenhouse emissions target. In addition, continuously pouring investments into the existing gas system with future repurposing to hydrogen in mind (an attractive proposition to gas utilities) risks locking customers into an expensive pathway to deep decarbonization. It could also result in the stranding of gas or hydrogen networks, following an ultimate switch to electrification, the costs of which would be shouldered by customers.

Recommendations for Policymakers: Ignore the Noise and Prioritize Building Electrification and Efficiency

Policymakers should prioritize building electrification and efficiency as the demonstrably more cost-effective widespread solution for buildings. More specifically:

• Policymakers should cut through the noise and decisively proceed with the widespread roll-out of high-efficiency heat pumps in buildings, energy efficiency upgrades, and the development of smart demand management policies. Hydrogen may have a supportive role in niche contexts, and such a proposition could be investigated based on independent assessments.

• Policymakers should exercise caution with efforts to keep pouring money into maintaining and expanding the gas network, premised on the future repurposing to hydrogen, and instead deploy a planning process for its gradual decommissioning in a manner that protects customers and workers. Repurposing portions of the gas network is a compelling proposition to serve challenging sectors that may require priority access to hydrogen—such as steelmaking and maritime shipping—and this targeted opportunity should be examined further.

The “code red” flashed by the newest UN climate report confirms we cannot afford to give credence to delay tactics and derail proven actions on climate that are necessary today. Green hydrogen has the potential to play a pivotal role in reducing emissions in hard-to-electrify sectors. But buildings are not the place for it.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

RACHEL FAKHRY

Policy Analyst, Climate & Clean Energy Program

MERRIAN BORGESON

Senior Scientist, Climate & Clean Energy Program